Re: Rants. Difficulty to learn ETL tools?

Have you take a look at Oracle Warehouse Builder (I think this one is
free now) or the new Oracle Data Integrator (ex: Sunopsis)?

pedro.

dba_222_at_yahoo.com wrote:
> Dear Experts,> > I've worked with Oracle since 1995. I have gone> very deep into many of the Oracle features, including> sqlloader, and export/import. And I've done data> modelling even longer.> > > At the same time, I have done ETL since 1995.> Although, at the Proc, and PLSQL, sqlloader, level.> Map the data. Take data from the source, do any> modifications/transformations that are required,> and insert or update. Easy. The hard part is> determining the mappings.> > > But I have not been given the opportunity to> work much with ETL tools such as:> Informatica, DataStage, Ascential, Ab Initio> > The little bit of experience that I do have,> showed that Informatica was -incredibly- easy to use.> It's a GUI. It's SUPPOSED to be simple!!!> > > I have missed out on a number of opportunities> because I didn't have a few YEARS of experience> with ETL tools. Which seems odd, because the> tool looks like it requires a max of a week to learn!> > > Just how difficult are these ETL tools to learn?> Especially if you have already been working with> Oracle, and doing data mappings and loads since 1995?> I'm thinking that it can't be difficult at all.> > When you search for newsgroups, there are no newsgroups> for these tools. Although the companies who make> them, might have their own newsgroup.> > > There are also not many books on these tools.> If you search for books on Oracle, or SQL Server,> you will find a lot of very big, and detailed> books. But there is next to nothing specifically> on the various ETL tools.> > Any certifications for any of these tools look> to be much simpler than Oracle's.> > > To me, the real issue is the mappings. If you> come into a new environment, the data mappings> are completely esoteric to those systems.> No amount of experience with an ETL tool, or any> tool, is going to tell you what the mappings should be.> > > Questions:> - Just how difficult are these ETL tools to learn> for an experience Oracle pro like myself?> > - Other than a GUI, making everything simple to use,> just what are the advantages of using ETL tools?> > - what built in functionality do ETL tools> have, that can't be done in PLSQL?> > > Thanks a lot!> Received on Wed Apr 18 2007 - 14:58:52 CDT